Fewer Power Outages, More Frustration

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. (WUSA) Dominion Power crews are still working around the clock to get everyone back on line. As there are fewer outages and the days go on, the frustration escalates.

Tim Skocz is running out of patience even as he watches Dominion Power crews working on his lines in his Arlington Countyneighborhood.

"I'm more annoyed. I have intense anger because it took so long. There was no communication between the county and Dominion Power to get things done,"he said.

A large tree that fell on the power lines intensified the frustration in the six day blackout which blocked the road for nearly a week. Arlington County is in charge of removing the tree, but according to regulations, couldn't do so until the power company deemed the lines safe.

Caroline Temmermandis theArlington County Park and Recreation Director. Shewrote a letter to residents saying that they were at the mercy of Dominion Power.

Phillip Sandino is a Dominion Power storm leader in charge of communicating and coordinating restoration efforts on sites such as the one on 23rd and South Dinwiddie Streets.

He says they are committed to restoring the area. "We will not leave until power is restored to this area. Even as late as yesterday we were trying to get on critical infrastructure. We were hooking up power to assisted living facilities yesterday," he said.

Skocz says, "It's understandable. I figured they'd be doing that Saturday, Sunday and maybe at the latest Monday."

Skocz's mother relies on oxygen, and he says his home may not be critical infrastructure but they should be a high priority.

"I called on Monday, called on Tuesday. I called yesterday. I called this morning,"he said on Thursday.

Sandino acknowledges that customer service can be a challenge when people want specific information and they don't get it."

Skocz says, "I'm angry more at the decision making level nothing under that."

Dominion Power says they expect there would be angry people as the outage drags into its seventh day.

Spokesperson Le-Ha Anderson says if you or a family member are on oxygen or have medical equipment that needs power, make sure that your Dominion Power account has a medical note.

This does not give you high priority but it gets youan automated message that tells you to plan accordingly and that a power outage could be imminent, she said.

Anderson says this systematic approach has proven to work. The utility company first restores critical infrastructure, then the main lines and then residential homes, going from largest population to the smallest.

Sandino points out the storm has shown that there are areas they need to improve on, and that's the response time for assisted living homes.